Here's the weekly news from the breakfast restaurant we frequent:

1. One server needed some time off to go with her son to court.

2. A patron, who came in at 10:30 am swore obscenely when the server told him they were out of biscuits. "It's the only reason I came in today," he told the entire room.

3. A two-year old learned how to push the Bissell carpet sweeper which kept him busy while his grandparents ate.

4. The same two-year old was upset when, after several days of sweeping, the Bissell was taken away from him because he tripped a nice old lady who was using a walker.

5. Business conducted during breakfast include: construction bosses calling their crews, homeowners calling to see when repairmen will be there, church business conducted by a pastor and her staff, nuns in one corner updating each other on the needs of their church (which sometimes sounds very much like gossip), people filling in applications for work, bridge players in another corner who have brought in their own pastries.

6. No one seems to be educated as to how to place a cell phone on mute or vibrate. Plus, these are older people who speak loudly in order to be heard on these 'new-fangled devices.' They give out credit card numbers, medical updates - all those things we are told to guard and keep secure.

7. Our table this morning was next to a group of a dozen men, long retired, who meet regularly to recount the war. Our server whispered to us that the room was getting filled up with 'old men smell.'

It's a place where everyone knows your name. And that's what I think about it.